Friday, 20 November 2009

“Water always wins.”

Fears were growing today for a police officer who went missing when a bridge was swept away in heavy floods after record-breaking rainfall swamped parts of northern England.

And spare a thought for the emergency services still on the ground, and above all, the volunteers:

A police spokeswoman said: 'Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service have 16 pumps actively assisting around the county at the moment while three boats are operating in Cockermouth ferrying stranded people to safety.

'Seven Royal National Lifeboat Institution boats are being sent over from the North East to assist emergency services.'

Well I've just come in from work and been told that I'm on standby for the weekend to support the teams further north. Shame about the Policeman, in those conditions things go south very quickly.Time to prep my gear for tomorrow, just in case.TTFN & stay safe folks.

Very sad. It has been confirmed that the officer was killed when the bridge collapsed.

"Seven Royal National Lifeboat Institution boats are being sent over from the North East to assist emergency services".

That'll be some of ours going from Northumberland. I hope they manage to do their stuff, and get back safely home to us afterwards.

I think people are beginning to learn the basics. Six inches of water, running fast enough, can knock a grown man off his feet. And floodwater can pop the drain-covers off, so never walk through floodwater without a stick to test the ground in front of you.

What is it with the environment agency? It would appear that none of them know anything about the country side.

My grandfather, a farm hand all his life, used to say 'if you don't manage the countryside it will manage you'. It appears he was right. Have they never learned that it might look nice to have little islands in a river but they act as dams to any fast flowing water - when were all the rivers that keep on flooding last dredged?

Over here, in my part of France, all the road side ditches and water courses are cleaned out at the end of summer in preparation for the winter rains. Do they do that in the UK now? They used to in my part of the country in the 50s.

Yes it is sad that a person has lost his life but that loss should be placed at the door of those that caused it by not doing their job.

Tonight on Newsnight I heard a former idiot from the EA trying all the excuses he could think of for not doing their job - mainly he bleated on that it would cost a lot of money - bullshit. If they did their job as it should be done they would be in maintenance mode by now and could get away with using a few of the lay abouts, i.e. make them earn their dole money.

"It should also be remebered how quickly The Government forgot the victims of 2007."

Indeed. Especiallt the Environment Agency, which as Ivan notes, should have been much better prepared for this.

"There's plenty more out there who want to do a good job, they way it should be done."

Absolutly right.

"...in those conditions things go south very quickly.Time to prep my gear for tomorrow, just in case."

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that they are wrong about the further rain forecasts!

"I think people are beginning to learn the basics. Six inches of water, running fast enough, can knock a grown man off his feet."

People forget how dangerous water in large quantities can be - and in the aftermath too.

Fires you can put out (or will burn out themselves), earth can be shifted with enough manpower (look at the 9/11 aftermath as an example) but water can only be removed if there's somewhere to pump it to.

"My grandfather, a farm hand all his life, used to say 'if you don't manage the countryside it will manage you'. It appears he was right."

We don't really pay enough attention to the countryside here, treating it more as a theme park and large, out-of-sight allottment.